Thunder Heat

Kevin Durant is not a player prone to foul trouble — he tends to dish out fouls to the unfortunate souls tasked with covering him, not get in trouble himself. But in the last two games Durant has been in foul trouble and it has dramatically impacted Oklahoma City’s offense and execution. Thunder coach Scott…

We all know these NBA finals are a whole lot more than LeBron James vs. Kevin Durant. Much more. But that is one fun part, and they do spend time guarding one another. Great job by NBA.com on their “phantom” videos putting together some highlights of this matchup. You get the feeling Game 4 is…

Serge Ibaka made headlines — and sounded pretty foolish — when he said Monday that LeBron James is not a good defender and couldn’t cover Kevin Durant one-on-one. Because so many people can. So LeBron, what do you think of that? “I don’t really care what he says, he’s stupid,” James said, then saying every…

You know Tim Grover as the guy who made his name as Michael Jordan’s personal trainer. Now he’s kind of an NBA fitness guru and countless elite players make the pilgrimage to his Chicago gym to work out. Dwayne Wade is one of those guys, and right now he could use the help — clearly…

Miami has made its statement. Nobody ever questioned their talent, the questions were how LeBron James would deal with being back on the biggest stage, and secondly, would they bring consistent effort that they had lacked all playoffs? LeBron has been the series MVP so far and for two games in a row the Heat…

Serge, when you’re down 2-1 in the NBA finals, you may not want to rattle the cage of the opponent’s best player. But Ibaka did that and sounded like he is watching a different game than the rest of us in a quote via Alex Kennedy of Hoopsworld. “LeBron is not a good defender. He…

Every year it is part of the narrative of the NBA finals — fans the team coming out on the bottom are convinced that their heroes would win if it were not for the referees clearly having it in for their team and David Stern trying to determine the outcome. You can count on it…

Today in PBT Extra Tiffany and I talk about how the Thunder have looked inexperienced for the first time these playoffs, how LeBron James looks more comfortable and what all that means for Game 4. I expect a more desperate Thunder team come Tuesday night, they know they can’t go down 3-1. But this has…

If you’re going to win a championship in any sport, you’re going to have to grind out some ugly wins. Football teams are going to have to run the ball and eat some clock. Hockey playoffs are all grind. And in the NBA, you are going to have to grind out a win with defense…

This has been a fantastic finals — add up the scores from the three games and the Thunder are actually ahead by 1 point. This has been a close series but right now the Heat are the ones up 2-1 because they have been able to win ugly. This has been a series made for…

Let’s be clear about this up front — Oklahoma City is not down 2-1 in the NBA finals because of Scott Brooks alone. First and foremost Miami has brought its best defensive focus and intensity for two games now, and when they do they can even slow the Thunder. Plus, Miami has that LeBron James…

Here are a few a few highlights from Sunday night’s post-game press conferences after Game 3, in case you didn’t stay up to the middle of the night to watch them get replayed on NBA TV. And if you didn’t what’s wrong with you? Where are your priorities? Kevin Durant says exactly what you’d expect…

LeBron James was the best player on the floor in the fourth quarter of Game 3 — eight points on four shots, plus he got to the line for five free throws. He steadied his team down the stretch. He and the Heat looked like the experienced team, the veterans, while the young Thunder were…

It is one key to winning in the NBA — exploit your mismatches. Against Kevin Durant, pretty much the other 449 guys in the league are a mismatch. Including Dwyane Wade. At one point in the second half Wade got switched on Durant defensively. That’s a size mismatch. Durant recognized it and scored over him.…

Kevin Durant just keeps doing it this series — he puts up 25 points on 19 shots in Game 3 and we feel like he was off his game a little. He’s that good. He wasn’t off it on this play — a catch at the three-point line, one dribble all the way to the…

The Miami Heat attacked from the opening tip and they owned the paint. But that wasn’t enough — the Oklahoma City Thunder adjusted, taking away the inside game and looked like they were going to take the game away on the road. And then the Thunder imploded. Oklahoma City fouled 3-point shooters. They missed free throws.…

This time, there was no slow start by the Thunder. In Game 3 they got down 10-4 but came back with James Harden early and the result was a close first half, with the Heat leading much of the way but never coming close to pulling away. It is 47-46 Heat at the half of…

It’s good not to make a move out of panic. Even in the NBA finals, you don’t want to overreact to one loss. But if things aren’t working – for example, you’ve gotten off to slow starts in two consecutive games because your two big man starting lineup is a bad matchup — you need…

Whenever the Thunder lose, like they did in Game 2 Thursday night, the blame falls quickly on Russell Westbrook. He started 1-7 shooting with just one assist as the Thunder fell behind 18-2 to open the game. A hole they could never get out of. If he would just stop taking shots away from Durant,…

NBA.com is doing a fantastic job with these — it’s not jut a highlight package, there are behind-the-scenes video, shots from off-day practices, really interesting stuff. And it doesn’t take much to make these games interesting. This has been a blisteringly fun series. I can’t wait for Game 3.

Through two games, this is shaping up to be an epic NBA finals. And people are tuning in — for the second straight contest Game 2 drew the largest Game 2 audience since 2004. That is to say, the biggest ratings since the Shaq/Kobe Lakers. Game 2 drew an overnight rating of 11.8 according to…

What I enjoy most about Dwyane Wade‘s post-game press conferences these playoffs is how the wrap on his finger always matches the color of his shirt. I’m not kidding. Does it every game. Here is the video of Erik Spoelstra, Scott Brooks, Kevin Durant and Wade talking about Game 2, a 100-96 Miami win that…

We already showed you the controversial one, but LeBron James and Kevin Durant were involved in some other huge plays down the stretch that made Game 2 one wild and entertaining finish. In his post game press conference Thunder coach Scott Brooks was almost just shaking his head at LeBron’s bank shot. Durant’s three was…

Oklahoma City was even or ahead of Miami for 36 minutes of Game 2. Seriously. The second quarter of Game 2 was tied, the Thunder and Heat each scored 28. The Thunder won the third quarter by a point and then owned the fourth quarter 29-22. Miami only won one quarter, the first one. But…